The Distillation

To clarify: The program does not offer "psychedelic-assisted therapy"— the administration by a health-care professional of psychedelic drugs for the purpose of treatment. Rather than a place for people to take drugs, the Center is for people who have had an experience with psychedelics on their own, or are thinking about using them.”

"Psychedelics can facilitate a deep openness to exploration that can[...]lead to spiritual or transcendent experiences which really can give rise to a very different sense of relationship to life, to the planet and to spirituality," Tatarsky says. "In some cases this can be very positive, but in some cases it can be extremely difficult, particularly if people kind of open up and make contact with repressed conflicts or dissociated trauma." Tatarsky says that they've had a number of people attend groups after discovering traumatic experiences — such as early sexual abuse, early experiences of neglect and abandonment or physical violence — that "had been completely dissociated" before a psychedelic experience brought them to the surface. The groups aim to help integrate the insights or discoveries made while on psychedelics into one's life. Taking psychedelics can sometimes, Tatarsky says, "be the beginning of a very important journey of resolving the trauma." But other times, it is not recommended. Part of our work," Tatarsky says, "is that when people come to us with an interest in psychedelics, we help them think through whether that is the right choice for them. In some cases it becomes clear that another form of therapy would be more beneficial. But in harm-reduction fashion, while we may not condone substance use, we need to really meet it with acceptance, compassion and support. "We recognize that people are engaging in these substances, and therefore we feel that it is ethical to provide support around their use."

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